1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a portable computer having a wireless LAN card mounted thereto, and more particularly, to a portable computer having an improved mounting structure to mount a wireless LAN card.
2. Description of the Related Art
A LAN (local area network) card is employed to allow a computer to access a network. According to a development of high-speed data communication and the widespread Internet, recent computers are generally mounted with the LAN card. Further, as an example of the LAN card, there is a wireless LAN card to allow wireless data communication.
The wireless LAN card enables wireless data communication between computers using an infrared signal or a high frequency signal, thereby facilitating installation and replacement of the wireless LAN card. The wireless LAN card can be mounted on a portable computer, a desktop computer, etc. However, the wireless LAN card is particularly useful on the portable computer because the portable computer provides mobility.
Because the design of the portable computer is restricted in size and shape in direct relation to its mobility, it is inconvenient to mount a standard PCI (peripheral component interconnect) LAN card on the portable computer. Therefore, a mini PCI LAN card that is smaller than the standard PCI LAN card is mostly employed in the portable computer. However, the mini PCI LAN card is too small to incorporate an antenna. Therefore, the mini PCI wireless LAN card is employed in the portable computer with a separate connectable antenna.
Hereinbelow, the mounting state of the mini PCI wireless LAN card will be described while referring to FIGS. 3 and 4.
FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of a portable computer, and FIG. 4 illustrates where a mini PCI wireless LAN card is mounted from the bottom view of the portable computer of FIG. 3. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the portable computer comprises a main body 110, and a display panel 100 rotatably connected to the main body 110. The main body 110 comprises an upper casing 112 and a lower casing 116, which are combined to each other to form a predetermined housing space. On the upper surface of the upper casing 112 is provided an input unit such as a keyboard 111, a touch pad, etc.
In the housing space created by the upper and lower casings 112 and 116 is installed a main board 114 mounted with a system circuit such as a CPU (central processing unit), a BIOS (basic input/output system) memory, etc. On the rear of the main board 114 is provided a PCI slot part 200 (see FIG. 4) to be described later, so as to allow a PCI card type peripheral unit to be mounted on the main board 114.
Further, inside the edge of the housing space are provided antenna parts 118. Each antenna part 118 comprises an antenna 120 to receive and transmit an RF (radio frequency) signal, and an RF signal line 122 through which the RF signal is delivered.
As illustrated in FIG. 4, in the PCI slot part 200, provided on the rear of the main board 114, a wireless LAN card 210 of a PCI card type can be inserted. The wireless LAN card 210 is slidingly inserted into the PCI slot part 200, and then the wireless LAN card 210 is connected to the antenna parts 118 by connecting RF connectors 218 of the wireless LAN card 210 with the RF signal lines 122 of the antenna parts 118, thereby completing the installation of the wireless LAN card 210.
The mounting state of the conventional wireless LAN card 210 is schematically illustrated in FIG. 5. As illustrated in FIG. 5, in the PCI slot part 200 mounted on the main board 114 are provided a pair of latch members 202 protruding from the PCI slot part 200 and spaced from each other by a predetermined distance.
The wireless LAN card 210 comprises a main card 212 made of a PCB (printed circuit board) substrate including a signal processing circuit. In the front of the main card 212 is provided a connector 216 inserted in the PCI slot part 200 and in the rear of the main card 212 is provided the RF connectors 218 to which the RF signal lines 122 of the antenna parts 118 are connected. Further, both sides of the main card 212 are provided with latch grooves 214 on which the latch members 202 of the PCI slot part 200 are latched.
With this configuration, when the connector 216 of the wireless LAN card 210 is completely inserted into the PCI slot part 200 of the main board 114, the latch members 202 of the PCI slot part 200 are latched onto the latch grooves 214 formed on the wireless LAN card 210, thereby preventing the wireless LAN card 210 from being separated from the PCI slot part 200. Then, the RF signal lines 122 of the antenna parts 118 are connected to the RF connectors 218 of the wireless LAN card 210, thereby allowing an RF signal received and transmitted through the antenna parts 118 to be inputted to and outputted from the wireless LAN card 210.
As described above, in order to install a wireless LAN card, the RF signal lines of the antenna parts must be separately connected to the RF connectors of the wireless LAN card when the wireless LAN card is inserted into a PCI slot part. Therefore it is inconvenient for a user to install the wireless LAN card, while the production process thereof is complicated.